04/01/2026

WORLD 8 theSun on Sunday JAN 4, 2026

US forces capture Maduro CARACAS: President Donald Trump said yesterday that US forces had captured Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro after launching a “large scale strike” on the South American country. “The United States of America has successfully carried out a large scale strike against Venezuela and its leader, President Nicolas Maduro, who has been, along with his wife, captured and flown out of the Country,” Trump said on Truth Social, around two hours after explosions rocked Venezuela’s capital Caracas. Blasts rock Caracas, other areas people,” the government said. The government said Maduro had declared a state of emergency but the 63-year-old was nowhere to be seen. The Defence Ministry accused the US of targeting residential areas and announced a “massive deployment” of its military resources. The leftist president of Colombia, Gustavo Petro, called on X for an emergency meeting of the United Nations and said he was deploying troops to the Venezuela border. aggression perpetrated by the United States of America against Venezuelan territory and

Earthquake shakes Mexico MEXICO CITY: A powerful earthquake shook southern Mexico on Friday, damaging roads and hospitals and briefly interrupting President Claudia Sheinbaum’s first press conference of the new year. A woman, aged 50, died in the southwestern state of Guerrero when her home collapsed due to the tremors, the state’s governor, Evelyn Salgado, said. Local media also reported that a 67-year-old man died in Mexico City while going down the stairs as he tried to evacuate his apartment. As the earthquake struck the capital, 290km away from the epicentre, the city’s iconic Angel of Independence monument, a golden angel atop a 45m-high column in a roundabout on one of the capital’s busiest avenues, swayed from side to side. The seismic alarm just before 8am local time sent crowds evacuating into the streets, many wearing towels or pyjamas and cradling pets. The 6.5-magnitude quake struck near the Pacific Coast in Guerrero at a depth of 35km, according to the US Geological Survey. Mexico’s seismological agency registered 420 aftershocks as of midday. Authorities reported landslides over highways, gas leaks, and damage to homes, public buildings and hospitals around Guerrero state. – Reuters Grok under fire over erotic pic SAN FRANCISCO: Elon Musk’s Grok on Friday said it was scrambling to fix flaws in the artificial intelligence tool after users said it turned pictures of children or women into erotic images. “We’ve identified lapses in safeguards and are urgently fixing them,” Grok said on X. “CSAM (child sexual abuse material) is illegal and prohibited.” Complaints of abuses began hitting X after an “edit image” button was rolled out on Grok late last month. The button allows users to modify images with some users deciding to remove clothing from women or children in pictures, according to complaints. Grok maker xAI, run by Musk, replied to an AFP query with a terse, automated response that said: “The mainstream media lies.” The Grok chatbot, however, did respond to an X user who queried it on the matter, after they said that a company in the United States could face criminal prosecution for knowingly facilitating or failing to prevent the creation or sharing of child porn. – AFP

As the strikes began in the dead of night, residents of Caracas rushed to their windows and terraces to try to make sense of events. Others hid in safe, windowless spaces, fearful of breaking glass. Francis Pena, a 29-year-old communications professional living in eastern Caracas, said he was sleeping and his girlfriend woke him and said “they’re bombing”. “I can’t see the explosions, but I hear the planes. We’re starting to prepare a bag with the most important things at home – passport, cards, cash, candles, a change of clothes, canned food,” Pena said. – AFP

There was no confirmation from Venezuela’s government of the fate of the leftist Maduro, in power since 2013. His government accused the United States of an “extremely serious military aggression” which follows a months-long campaign of increasing military and economic pressure by Trump. In a dramatic night of fast moving events, Caracas was rocked by explosions, accompanied by the sound of helicopters, around 2am (2pm in Malaysia). The blasts continued for nearly an hour, journalists said.

Maduro and wife flown out of the country, says Trump. – AFPPIC

AFP saw flames and huge plumes of smoke billowing from Fuerte Tiuna. Blasts were also heard in La Guaira, north of the capital, where Caracas’s airport and port are located. “I felt like (the explosions) lifted me out of bed, and I immediately thought, ‘God, the day has come’, and I cried,” said Maria Eugenia Escobar, a 58 year-old resident of La Guaira. “Venezuela rejects before the international community the extremely serious military

Trump said he would give a news conference at 11am (midnight in Malaysia) at his Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida. In a brief phone interview with The New York Times , he hailed a “brilliant” operation which involved “a lot of good planning and lot of great, great troops and great people.” Fuerte Tiuna, Venezuela’s largest military complex, in the south of Caracas, and Carlota airbase in the north were among the targets of the strikes.

Angelina Jolie visits Rafah crossing CAIRO: Actress Angelina Jolie on Friday visited the Egyptian side of the Rafah crossing into Gaza, where she spoke with members of the Red Crescent and truck drivers ferrying humanitarian aid.

Accompanied by an American delegation and greeted by former and current officials, Jolie said she was “honoured” to meet aid volunteers at the crossing. A Red Crescent volunteer told the Oscar winner that “there are thousands of aid trucks just waiting” at the Egyptian side of the border crossing. According to local media, the actor and former special envoy for the UN refugee agency made the visit to see the condition of injured Palestinians transferred to Egypt and to look into aid deliveries into the devastated territory. The actress announced plans to establish a relief village for orphaned children in Gaza, providing a safe haven for those who lost family members in Israeli attacks. She explained that the project would offer shelter, healthcare, education, and psychological support, stressing that Gaza’s children deserve life and hope like all children worldwide. The Rafah border crossing was set to be reopened under the ceasefire in effect in Gaza since October, but has so far remained closed.

Jolie meeting employees of aid agencies at the Egyptian Rafah border crossing. – AFPPIC

Jolie stepped down from her role as special envoy for the UN refugee agency at the end of 2022 after more than 20 years of service, saying she wanted to work on broader humanitarian issues. – AFP/Bernama

essential supplies” to Gaza. In early December, Israel announced that the Rafah crossing would be opened only for those wishing to leave Gaza, prompting Cairo to swiftly deny that it had approved such a move.

In a joint statement on Friday, Egypt and six other countries including Saudi Arabia “urged the international community to pressure Israel, as the occupying power, to immediately lift the constraints on the entry and of